Malvern in flood-plain battle with FEMA

The Sandy Creek only runs about a mile through the area, slicing the village in half.

But that 5,000 or so feet of creek is enough to create financial stress for several Malvern residents, some of whom are trying to change a recent flood plain designation.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) expanded the flood plain here in 2010. As a result, property owners with mortgages have to pay flood insurance.

"It put quite a few people in the flood plain that weren't in it," Village Councilman Alan Artzner said. "For years they had never seen floods in those areas. It required them to buy flood insurance. I have lived here pretty much all of my life, and I have never seen these areas flood."

Property owners who have paid-off mortgages are not required to purchase flood insurance.

But if that property owner tries to sell the house, flood insurance is likely to be required. If the individual buying the house gets financing from a federally regulated lender, then flood insurance is required, according to FEMA.

A CHALLENGE

Village officials and some residents hope to change the designation.

They opted to have an elevation study done, village Solicitor Vincent Slabaugh said. "If you are a certain number of feet above the flood plain you are exempt. A lot of people thought they were not in the flood plain even though FEMA said they were. Most of Malvern appears to be in the flood plain for whatever reason. We can't figure it out."

A New Philadelphia engineering and surveying firm, Diversified Engineering, was recruited to help property owners challenge the designation.

"The individual residents hired us to come in and do an elevation survey," said Curtis Hanstine, an engineer with Diversified Engineering. "The big issue is flood insurance. If your house is designated in the flood plain and you have a mortgage, the banks will make you get flood insurance."

Sandy Creek runs along the northern edge of the downtown of this village of 1,180 residents. The creek appears to be between 40 to 50 feet in width. One recent day the water level was somewhat shallow.

"It is shallow now, but it fills up pretty quickly when we get some heavy rain," Artzner said.

"That is a significant part of our population on Main Street," Artzner said.

It also is where Village Hall and Malvern High School sit. Brown Local Board of Education currently is looking for a site to construct a new school building, paid in part by a $17.15 million bond issue approved by voters Aug. 6.

The flood plain also extends to some less populated areas of in the southwest part of Malvern.

Despite sitting just south of Sandy Creek, the downtown area, for the most part, is outside the flood plain.

Along with driving up property insurance, FEMA's new flood plain designation is making some land prohibitive for commercial use, according to Artzner.

"If somebody wanted to come in here and build a new business, there is not a whole lot left that is not in the flood plain," Artzner said. "FEMA is being cautious, I am sure. I have heard that flood insurance runs anywhere from several hundred (dollars) to $2,000 a year."

MAP UNDER REVIEW

To challenge the FEMA designation, the property owner requests a letter of map change.

"There have been a number of letters of map amendments filed in Malvern," Dan Shulman, a public relations officer for the FEMA Region 5 office in Chicago. "I want to reassure the residents of Malvern the map we have in place is not set in stone and is subject to change."

The FEMA flood plain designation for Malvern suggests there is a chance within a 100-year period the Sandy Creek would overflow.

"They were in the 100-year flood plain which is a one percent chance that it could happen in any given year," Hanstine said.

But village officials doubt they will see such a flood.

"We hear that a lot, 'It has never flooded and it never will,'" Shulman said. "And that just is not true. In any given year it can flood. By law we have to represent that risk. We look at a lot of information. We are looking at the hydrology. If it is a creek or river, we are looking at historical flows. The big three are hydrology, topography and development."

The federal program is called the National Flood Insurance Program.

The insurance program was created, "to serve a part of the (insurance) market that the private sector was backing away from" Shulman said. "FEMA works cooperatively with state and local governments to periodically update maps."

A new flood plain designation also is being contested in Louisville where some residents in the southeast portion of town were affected. The new flood plain designation took effect in Louisville in 2011. The engineering firm Hammontree Associates was summoned in Louisville.

"The situation in Louisville and part of the Broad-Monter Creek corridor is similar to what they have in Malvern," said Barb Bennett of Hammontree Associates. "The homeowners got notices from their lending agencies that they have to get flood insurance. So we had to conduct a hydraulic study of the creek corridor to prove to FEMA that their maps were incorrect. That affected about 20 property owners."

The Broad-Monter Creek is a tributary to the Nimishillen Creek. FEMA recently notified Louisville officials that they are revising flood plain findings.

Sandy Creek flows into the Malvern area from Minerva. Working its way west, Sandy Creek connects with the Tuscarawas River near Bolivar.

Mayor Steven Adams, in his first term, recalls visiting Washington, D.C., to discuss the flood plain issue with U.S. Rep. William "Bill" Johnson of Ohio's 6th District.

"You have got a lot of people on fixed incomes here," Adams said. "How can they afford (flood) insurance? I will be honest, I don't feel it was right. Whatever I can do to help, I will. I can see their (FEMA) point, but I don't think they see our point."

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